AR is about all of us

I finished Ecology of Freedom today, and I was a bit disappointed. After spending months getting through the thought-provoking, lyrically word-dense book that literally turned some of my never-before-questioned thoughts on their ear, I thought he pancaked in his conclusion.

He spent 450 pages plus a 26 page intro building up his arguments against hierarchies and urging us to move away from hierarchical thinking, only to neglect to take it that one small final step. He didn’t seem to make the connection that breaking down hierarchies within the human race and between humans and nature requires that you also break down the hierarchies between humans and other animals. How can you convince someone that all humans have equal worth, regardless of money, intelligence, or anything else, that equality of inequals is the goal? How do you convince anyone of that if you believe that subjugation and objectification of other species is okay? They are not here for the use, entertainment, and exploitation by humans. They are here for themselves, to live their lives.

Time after time it has been shown that increasing Animal Rights awareness increases Human Rights awareness. How could it not? If you can feel compassion for all of the animals, large and small, that surround us, you will naturally feel more compassion for all of the animals around you, human, insect, canine, bovine…all animals.

AR is about all of us. It is about the choices we make every day, about how we treat our companion animals, our coworkers, friends and family. It is about how we want to be treated by others, about the respect we have for each other. Break down the hierarches. Break them down between each other and between humans and animals. We owe it to each other.

“I do it for the joy it brings, because I am a joyful girl. Because the world owes me nothing, and we owe each other the world.” Ani Difranco